With a headcount of around 1.4 billion in 2015, India is expected to become one of the most populous nations by 2025. The country’s population pyramid is expected to “bulge” across the 15–64 age bracket over the next decade, increasing the working age population from approximately 761 million to 869 million during 2011–2023. Consequently, until 2020, India will experience a period of “demographic bonus”.

India needs to poise itself to take advantage of this “demographic bonus”. Today, India has to focus on increasing the skilled workforce in the country, which is a dismal 2 per cent compared to 96 per cent in South Korea, 80 per cent in Japan and 75 per cent in Germany.

Given the thrust on landmark reforms like “Make in India”, both Government and industry have endorsed that the focus on Skill Development has to take priority.

Given the structural changes and the industry friendly policy changes, the December issue of Policy Watch is a sincere endeavor to get sectoral industry views on skill development through the voices of the Chairmen of National Committees and Regional Chairmen of the various skill Sub-Committees.